(no subject)
Sep. 10th, 2005 09:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickOkay, so I went out and put some miles on the IRH, who did a pretty good job. Accompanying me was the Intrepid Lala on Mezcal. As Mezcal was not feeling very leaderly, Nick and I took point. Fortunately, this was not like taking point in patrols during the Vietnam War... we had much higher odds for survival.
She was kind of funny, looking at everything with grave suspicion. She didn't spook or anything, but she certainly took an interest in her surroundings. Unlike Mezcal, though, she was willing to provide solid forward motion in spite of taking an interest. That's important in leading. The reason you need a leading horse is that someone has to be in front. If the person in front is making good forward progress, everything goes much more smoothly. The person in front has to make with the forward motion, but most green horses are not very good about stepping out in front of everyone else. They might follow along very quickly, but they don't really want to be in front. Experienced horses do not usually get all wobbly and stupid and uncertain when they're out in front. Anyway, since Mezcal wasn't interested in being first, Nick and I were first. She, at least, steps out pretty well at the walk whether or not there's someone ahead of her.
We went through the field to the intersection with the covered bridge road, rode down the hill to the covered bridge (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
not_your_real has seen the covered bridge in question. For the rest of you, it's this one, but with less wintertime-y scenery right now) and went over the covered bridge, where Nick did a real leaderly job of going over it. Sometimes horses hesitate or offer up bullshit about the covered bridge because it looks kind of dark and scary inside. Nick didn't hesitate at all, just went right on in like her IQ was normal. We went up the hill on the other side, mostly at a half-assed trot. *sigh* While Nick is pretty leaderly at walking speeds, her leaderly trot is still wobbly and stupid and uncertain. Clearly, we need more practice at the leaderly trot. Then we went down the curvy road near Herbie's (same Herbie as was in the post about breaking the reins, a couple of days back) and across the creek, where Nick was again leaderly and quite solid. (The fucking horse isn't scared of anything but cars.) We went up the hill (it's a hayfield) and out the road, through the woods and the field, and we were home again. There were a couple of vehicle events, but nothing particularly worthy of note. We did do our circle things twice in actual fear, but I figure part of that was because we were in a small group of two and we didn't have a real steady leader horse along to provide a calming influence. It's harder to be brave when you're your own leader.
When we got home, Melinda had shown up with Brittany to pick up whatever for pinto mare Brittany was buying, one of Julie's horses that she was selling because she was getting into Quarter Horses because her Baby Papa said they were clearly better and superior and whatnot. Whatever. Now, Melinda has a two-horse trailer with a ramp. Nick usually loads on a stock trailer with a step up. She's never seen a two-horse trailer with a ramp or been asked to load in one. However, since it was right there, I figured we'd best not waste the learning opportunity. I told her to get on it. She gave it a couple of tries. They were good, honest tries and I let her take a break inbetween each try because they were such solid efforts. (I was shocked at how good the tries were.) The first try, she put two feet on the ramp and backed off. The second try she walked up the ramp and put two feet on the flat inside-the-trailer part and then backed off. The third try she did that again. The fourth try she went on, all the way, like a good horse, and she backed off in a straight line (not falling off the ramp) like a good horse. I was pretty thrilled and that was the end of our two-horse trailer with a ramp practice.
One other fun thing -- when I was tacking up Nick, I got the bareback pad on her and she got all round-backed and goochy, so I gave her some rein to walk it off. She walked with little hops and I would lay money that the correct read of her body language was "I want to buck. If I buck she's going to yank on my mouth and I don't want that. But I want to buck. If I buck she's going to yank on my mouth and I don't want that." She looked so damn funny. I asked La about it and she was like "Yeah, that was the read I was getting too..." so it wasn't just me. I had her do a couple of circles in each direction and she settled right down, so whatever it was, it wasn't serious.
She was kind of funny, looking at everything with grave suspicion. She didn't spook or anything, but she certainly took an interest in her surroundings. Unlike Mezcal, though, she was willing to provide solid forward motion in spite of taking an interest. That's important in leading. The reason you need a leading horse is that someone has to be in front. If the person in front is making good forward progress, everything goes much more smoothly. The person in front has to make with the forward motion, but most green horses are not very good about stepping out in front of everyone else. They might follow along very quickly, but they don't really want to be in front. Experienced horses do not usually get all wobbly and stupid and uncertain when they're out in front. Anyway, since Mezcal wasn't interested in being first, Nick and I were first. She, at least, steps out pretty well at the walk whether or not there's someone ahead of her.
We went through the field to the intersection with the covered bridge road, rode down the hill to the covered bridge (
not_your_real has seen the covered bridge in question. For the rest of you, it's this one, but with less wintertime-y scenery right now) and went over the covered bridge, where Nick did a real leaderly job of going over it. Sometimes horses hesitate or offer up bullshit about the covered bridge because it looks kind of dark and scary inside. Nick didn't hesitate at all, just went right on in like her IQ was normal. We went up the hill on the other side, mostly at a half-assed trot. *sigh* While Nick is pretty leaderly at walking speeds, her leaderly trot is still wobbly and stupid and uncertain. Clearly, we need more practice at the leaderly trot. Then we went down the curvy road near Herbie's (same Herbie as was in the post about breaking the reins, a couple of days back) and across the creek, where Nick was again leaderly and quite solid. (The fucking horse isn't scared of anything but cars.) We went up the hill (it's a hayfield) and out the road, through the woods and the field, and we were home again. There were a couple of vehicle events, but nothing particularly worthy of note. We did do our circle things twice in actual fear, but I figure part of that was because we were in a small group of two and we didn't have a real steady leader horse along to provide a calming influence. It's harder to be brave when you're your own leader.When we got home, Melinda had shown up with Brittany to pick up whatever for pinto mare Brittany was buying, one of Julie's horses that she was selling because she was getting into Quarter Horses because her Baby Papa said they were clearly better and superior and whatnot. Whatever. Now, Melinda has a two-horse trailer with a ramp. Nick usually loads on a stock trailer with a step up. She's never seen a two-horse trailer with a ramp or been asked to load in one. However, since it was right there, I figured we'd best not waste the learning opportunity. I told her to get on it. She gave it a couple of tries. They were good, honest tries and I let her take a break inbetween each try because they were such solid efforts. (I was shocked at how good the tries were.) The first try, she put two feet on the ramp and backed off. The second try she walked up the ramp and put two feet on the flat inside-the-trailer part and then backed off. The third try she did that again. The fourth try she went on, all the way, like a good horse, and she backed off in a straight line (not falling off the ramp) like a good horse. I was pretty thrilled and that was the end of our two-horse trailer with a ramp practice.
One other fun thing -- when I was tacking up Nick, I got the bareback pad on her and she got all round-backed and goochy, so I gave her some rein to walk it off. She walked with little hops and I would lay money that the correct read of her body language was "I want to buck. If I buck she's going to yank on my mouth and I don't want that. But I want to buck. If I buck she's going to yank on my mouth and I don't want that." She looked so damn funny. I asked La about it and she was like "Yeah, that was the read I was getting too..." so it wasn't just me. I had her do a couple of circles in each direction and she settled right down, so whatever it was, it wasn't serious.
